Birds Observed in Thailand

A Selection of Birds Observed

Crimson Sunbird

Storks on the hunt.

Indian Roller

Sunbird

Common Mynah bird

Chinese Pond Heron

Common Crow

Greater Coucal

An Introduction to the Birds of Thailand

…………the feathered variety that is!

We’ve lived in a
rural part of Thailand
for the past three years and have been pleasantly surprised at the number of
birds we’ve seen here. I say ‘surprised’
because on our many travels throughout Thailand in the years prior to our
settling here, there were many parts where it was difficult to catch a glimpse
of one or hear a birdsong. There were
always the numerous water birds in the paddy fields, but smaller birds seemed
rare.

We arrived in the
summer of 2006 and made our home near Sattahip. It’s a small village with a population of probably less than a hundred
people. They are mostly subsistence farmers
so we are surrounded by farmland. The
area has many small (and ever decreasing) forests, lakes and mountains.

The first
depressing site within the first few weeks of our arrival was several local
people netting small wild birds with a net between two bamboo poles. We could hardly say anything as we were
newcomers and foreigners to boot. And would
have been considered interfering foreigners at that! We didn’t even show our disapproval - really,
we didn’t know if they were going to eat the poor things or sell them in the
market as songbirds; or even to the temple bird sellers to sell to on as gifts
to Buddha.

We have to live
here and for whatever reasons the local people catch birds, it’s as well for
outsiders like ourselves to remember, this part of the country is extremely
poor. Not for nothing does our little
shop keeper gather every recyclable item, clean them up and sell them; nor his daughter and wife beat great heaps of
discarded concrete just to get the steel rebars out! When I say ‘poor’ I mean poverty in
the extreme! So much as we may wish they
could spare the little birds, we can also see why they need to do something to
get a little cash. The cash is to
survive, and these people are adept at surviving and being happy into the
bargain! There’s always a smile for us,
always a cheery greeting and always a seat in the shop for us to sit and have a
drink. Along with this if always the
offer of food! It just makes you feel
very warm in your heart to know such people and have the privilege of living
with them.

But back to the
local bird population. We have two Labrador dogs, Tessa and Pippa, and they take us on their
early morning walks each day - to keep us fit we presume! But a by product of all this walking and the
early rising is that we’ve now seen many different species of birds common to Thailand. So our feelings of sadness have now turned to
feelings of breath-catching hope. We’re
glad we didn’t interfere with the bird catchers (and may I add, we’ve never
seen them since – maybe our very presence put them off).

Below you will
find a list of all the birds that we’ve seen in the past three years, some of
them from further afield than local Sattahip. We’re not expert or professional birdwatchers so there may be some
discrepancies, but we’ve been as diligent as possible in our research and often
it’s difficult to see colours specifically.

I think we tend
to forget that the birds we’ve grown up with in our own native countries we are
totally familiar with. We know their
flight patterns, their body size, their colours, their song, their nesting
habits and everything about them. It’s
an intrinsic part of our life, almost part of our genetic makeup. The same with our own native trees and
animals. We haven’t studied them; we
just know which is which. We can
identify them at a glance without effort.

But when you move
to a new country, especially one so distant from your own birth place, it’s a
whole new ball game. The fall of the
Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis ) as he tumbles off the electricity
wires after a juicy dragonfly; the wild and insane shrieks of the Red-wattled
Lapwing (Vanellus indicus ) as he entices you from their nests with their
limping gait; and the strange upside down creeping in the trees of the
Racket-tailed Treepie (Crysirina temia ), are all enough to baffle the
most passionate of ‘twitchers’. But we
cannot even come near the ‘twitcher’ category. We’re just interested country folk. We’d like to know who we’re living with and are making every effort to
find out.

We’re happy that
we know the common Mynah, the Asian Sparrow and the gentle Zebra Dove; they
live in our garden. It’s when you walk a
little further that the identification becomes somewhat haphazard and it’s only
with constant watching that you can become familiar with one and all.

Hopefully, the
following table will be as accurate as we can possibly make it in our three
years of study.

[1]
Reference Book for all of the above birds observed: Morten Strange. A Photographic Guide to theBirds
of Thailand.
. Publisher: Eric Oey, Periplus
Edition 2000.

ISBN 962-593-962-1

(The end numbers on each listed bird refers to the pages in the above book used to identify the birds)

.........More Avian Photos.

Little Cormorant

Little Egret

Magpie Robin - he who attacks his own image in the car mirror or window!

Olive Backed Sunbird

Pied Fantail - the one who likes to come indoors, then can't find his way out.

Tailor bird.

Heard But Not Seen

The following list of birds are the night
birds, and it is very difficult to identify these splendid avians by anything
other than their song. The easiest of
all is the ‘Ping Pong ball’ bird, or the Indian Nightjar (Caprimulgus
asiaticus), for the very reason his song (?) resembles the continual
dropping of a ping pong ball on a hard surface.
Along with the Red-wattled Lapwing (he of the insane screech!) this is
the pair of birds I’d most like to murder!
The one follows the other through the daylight and dark hours. But you get used to their strange calls and
they become part of the background eventually.
As with any such noise, the lack of it would ruin your day! I would suffer from severe ‘Lapwing and
Nightjar deprivation’ were they absent; a new disease to the medical world
possibly!!

I have no way of knowing if any or all of
these night birds do inhabit our area, but the very presence of so many
different sounds at nighttime would suggest that many are represented. The area has all of the requirements
for such birds, so it’s a reasonable assumption.

Brown Fish-Owl (Ketupa zeylonensis) 53 cm 162

Buffy Fish-Owl (Ketupa ketupa) 50cm 162

Collared Owlet (Glaucidium brodiei) 16cm 163

Brown Hawk-Owl (Ninox scutulata) 30cm 163

Spotted Owlet (Athene brama) 20cm 164

Spotted Wood-Owl (Strix seloputo) 48cm 164

Barn Owl (Tyto alba) 34cm 159

Oriental Scops Owl (Otus sunia) 19cm 160

Collared Scops Owl (Otus lempiji) 23cm 160

Savannah Nightjar (Caprimulgus affinis) 26cm 169

Large-tailed Nightjar (Caprimulgus macrurus) 30cm 168

Indian Nightjar (Caprimulgus
asiaticus) 23cm 169

.

Birds On My 'Wish List'.

The following birds are the ones on my ‘Wish
List’. They do not inhabit the areas
around this area apart from the illusive Pelican, (Pelecanus philippensis). It’s a pretty large bird, some 140 cm in all,
so shouldn’t be difficult to spot. So
far though it’s evaded my eagle eye.
The Hornbills though, I shall only see when and if we venture to some of
the wonderful National Parks in the South and South West of Thailand. Sadly they are all becoming rare and many are
on the endangered list, mainly due to habitat loss – deforestation for farming
etc.

Birds
to see:

Hornbills

White Crowned Hornbill (Berenicornis comatus) 90cm 189

Brown Hornbill (Ptilolaemus tickelli) 74cm 189

Bushy-Crested Hornbill (Anorrhinus galeritus) 70cm 190

Wreathed Hornbill (Rhyterceros undulates) 100cm 192

Plain-pouched Hornbill (Rhyticeros subruficollis) 90cm 192

Black Hornbill (Anthracocers malayanus) 75cm 193

Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) 70cm 193

Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) 110cm 194

Great Hornbill (Buceros
bicornis) 122 cm 194

Helmeted Hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil) 127cm 195

Pelicans

Spot-billed Pelican (Pelecanus philippensis) 140cm
42

In Conclusion............

I am now 65 years
old and have been living in Thailand
for 3 years. The research book I quote
from has some 375 pages with mostly 4 birds to a page. I’ve identified possibly 60 to 65, so how
long does that leave me to identify the remainder I wonder?

I leave that for
the mathematicians amongst you to work that out. Meantime, I’ll continue to observe and try to
identify more of the beautiful creatures and will enjoy every minute of the
activity. And in my role as the
occasional teacher to our village children, will endeavour to impart to them as
much knowledge as I can about conservation, ecology, the environment and the
wonderful world of nature that is their heritage.

Comments

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Author

Marianne Kellow 3 years agofrom SE Thailand

So sorry about that. I will do so in future, I'm much more clued up on procedures now. Several of the photos were from Flickr and I didn't realise at the time about copyright etc.

mistitifarang 3 years ago

Yes, a well-researched hub but................ when you use photos from somebody, please mention the photographer! (Common Mynah bird)

IAmForbidden 5 years agofrom Neverland - where children never grow up.

wow, well-researched hub. very brilliant! im amazed. keep it up, i vote it + and all.

Anoop Aravind A 5 years agofrom Nilambur, Kerala, India

hi good hub.nice photos.

Author

Marianne Kellow 5 years agofrom SE Thailand

Thank you Ram_m. I should update this as we've seen so many other birds now. My favourite to date is a young Green billed Malkoha who plays in the trees in the garden and performs some wonderful antics! MB

ram_m 5 years agofrom India

Excellent hub packed with information. Thank you for your well researched article

Peter Dickinson 8 years agofrom South East Asia

A great hub. Another promotion for Thai tourism. I have not seen a tenth of the birds you have. You are very lucky. I saw hornbills in Cambodia though (doesn't count there).

The Pelicans you could see in the Safari Park. Wild birds live and breed there.

Author

Marianne Kellow 8 years agofrom SE Thailand

Many, many thanks dohn121, you're comments always give me so much encouragement and I'm so enjoying the writing and research.

dohn121 8 years agofrom Hudson Valley, New York

Wonderful hub, MB. It's always a pleasure to visit you. You have quite the extensive knowledge of birds! Your photos are gorgeous to say the least and the quality of work you put in will not go unnoticed. Thanks.